Armadale

When the elderly Allan Armadale makes a terrible confession on his death-bed, he has little idea of the repercussions to come, for the secret he reveals involves the mysterious Lydia Gwilt: flame-haired temptress, bigamist, laudanum addict and husband-poisoner. Her malicious intrigues fuel the plot of this gripping melodrama: a tale of confused identities, inherited curses, romantic rivalries, espionage, money-and murder. The character of Lydia Gwilt horrified contemporary critics, with one reviewer describing her as "e;One of the most hardened female villains whose devices and desires have ever blackened fiction."e; She remains among the most enigmatic and fascinating women in nineteenth-century literature and the dark heart of this most sensational of Victorian "e;sensation novels."e; (Goodreads)